Burroughs: The Movie: Criterion Collection
February 5, 2016
At the time the documentary Burroughs: The Movie was released in 1983, author William S. Burroughs was a counterculture legend but existed largely under the popular culture radar. Director Howard Brookner had spent five years working on it with the writer’s...
Don’t Look Back: Criterion Collection
December 22, 2015
D.A. Pennebaker’s legendary documentary Dont Look Back (1967) chronicles Bob Dylan’s last acoustic music tour in England during the spring of 1965. The filmmaker was allowed complete access to the folk singer both on and off stage and captured it...
Downhill Racer: Criterion Collection
November 24, 2015
There are few good sports films that aren’t riddled with clichés and there are even fewer good films about skiing. Downhill Racer (1969) is one of those rare exceptions. Based on Oakley Hill’s 1963 novel, The Downhill Racers, Paramount Pictures optioned...
Mulholland Drive: Criterion Collection
November 17, 2015
Mulholland Drive (2001) started as a television pilot that did not get picked up by an American network. Instead of just letting it go and moving on to something else, David Lynch reunited his cast and crew for reshoots, filmed new material, which transformed...
Psycho Beach Party: Blu-Ray
August 20, 2015
Surf’s up all you hep cats and hep kitties! Psycho Beach Party (2001) is a crazy movie that parodies and celebrates those kitschy beach party movies of the 1960s and sci-fi films of the 1950s. The prelude sets the tone of the movie perfectly. Chicklet...
My Beautiful Laundrette: Criterion Collection
July 28, 2015
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) was one of the first films released by the prolific British film production company Working Title Films whose presence would be felt greatly in the 1990s. It also marked a significant success in the burgeoning careers of...
The Black Stallion: Criterion Collection
July 27, 2015
Based on Walter Farley’s 1941 novel of the same name, The Black Stallion (1979) is beautifully shot art house film for children, which is unthinkable in this day and age of noisy CGI animated movies and dumbed-down live-action fare. This is due in large...
The Fisher King: Criterion Collection
June 30, 2015
When Terry Gilliam was offered The Fisher King (1991) he had come from the exhausting experience of making The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) that saw him clash with one of the film’s meddling producers and resulted in a limited theatrical release....
Five Easy Pieces: Criterion Collection
June 24, 2015
Jack Nicholson had one of the best runs of any actor during the 1970s and that’s saying a lot when you consider it was at a time when the likes of Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, among others, were doing some of their very best work. Nicholson...
The Rose: Criterion Collection
June 18, 2015
Originally titled Pearl, The Rose (1979) was initially conceived as a biopic about singer Janis Joplin (Pearl was the name of her last album). However, when her family refused the rights to her story, the producers fictionalized Joplin’s life enough...
